Charter School of Wilmington wins statechampionship at 2014 Delaware Envirothon

GREENVILLE (April 11, 2014) – The Charter School of Wilmington’s Team Awon the 2014 Delaware Envirothon competition held Thursday at Coverdale Farm Preserve in Greenville. Charter School of Wilmington Team B placed second and Polytech Future Farmers of America (FFA) won third place in the competition.The Envirothon program is sponsored by the Delaware Association of Conservation Districts. Leading co-sponsors for the 2014 competition included the Delaware Solid Waste Authority, Delaware Department of Agriculture’ s Pesticides Section, DNREC’s Division of Watershed Stewardship, the Delaware Farm Bureau, the New Castle County Farm Bureau, and the New Castle Conservation District.

The 17 competing Envirothon teams had worked hard throughout the school year to prepare for the event. When the day arrived, each team answered questions, reviewed specimens and took measurements in topics dealing with aquatic ecology, soils/land-use, wildlife, forestry, air quality and the current environmental issue of sustainable agriculture/locally grown. Teams also had to give a 7-10 minute oral presentation using a poster they developed for the given scenario – which was developing a management plan and marketing strategy for a new sustainable farming operation. After more than three hours of testing, the results were announced, and Charter School of Wilmington Team A – with the top score of 2,173 out of a possible 2,500 points – was crowned the 2014 Delaware Envirothon champion.

The highest placing teams and team members were:

First Place – Charter School of Wilmington Team A (in adjacent photo, left to right): Naman Agarwal, Gavy Aggarwal, Yesh Chillakuru, Martin Kurian and Byron Fan. Conrad Rice and Rose Lounsbury, team advisors.

Second Place: Charter School of Wilmington (in middle photo, left to right): Isaac Kempton, Victoria Muir, Gina Zhu, Kyle Lennon, and Miles Wang Conrad Rice and Rose Lounsbury, team advisors.

Each team member from the first place team earned a $500 scholarship from the Delaware Envirothon, a $100 gift card and other prizes. The winning team also received an award plaque for their school.

Second place Charter School of Wilmington Team B received the $300 Ernest J. Zimmerman award for use towards the purchase of environmental education supplies. Third place Polytech FFA received the $150 Dean Belt award. Charter School of Wilmington Team C received $100 for fourth place.

Prizes in the form of gift cards totaling $2,200 and ribbons were awarded to the top seven teams.

Since 1996, Delaware has hosted a state-wide Envirothon competition that awarded $47,500 in scholarships to 95 students over that time.For more information about the Delaware Envirothon, please visit www.delawareenvirothon.org or contact Rick Mickowski at 302-832-3100 ext. 113.